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Teenager Nick Mitchell's LSD overdose - death, delusions and despair

View attachment 30184LIKE a carefree teenager, Nick Mitchell spent Saturday morning skateboarding and hanging out with his younger brother. Life was good for the Central Coast boy.

Ten hours later the academically gifted teen was dead after a nightmare chain of events sparked by taking an illegal and dangerous drug.

Nick, 15, died after he and a mate experimented with a substance police believe to be LSD.

The drug caused respiratory problems and heart complications for Nick, who could not be revived after his 11-year-old brother found him unconscious in his bedroom.

It had a different effect on his friend, also 15, who, in a psychotic state, ran naked into traffic on a busy road and was hit by a car, leaving him with serious injuries. He is in hospital.

Nick's parents Matthew and Sharon were yesterday struggling with the shock of their son's tragic death and how the popular teen came to be in possession of such a deadly substance.

The two mates had been hanging out together in Nick's granny flat-style bedroom, at the rear of the family's waterfront home in Tascott.

It was during the heatwave on Saturday, and neighbours said they saw the pair wander between the flat and a backyard pool, looking happy and giving no hint of the tragedy which was about to unfold.

About 8.30pm Mrs Mitchell received a frantic call at work from her youngest son to say Nick was not breathing. He'd found his brother slumped on the floor of the bedroom, which police later discovered had been "smashed up".

A neighbour raced over to help and performed CPR on the dying boy, while he waited for paramedics.

In a cruel twist, paramedics racing to the Mitchells' home came across an accident just around the corner where Nick's friend had been hit by a car.

A second ambulance got to Nick and rushed him to Gosford Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Head of the NSW Police drug squad Detective Superintendent Nick Bingham said the teenager's death was an absolute tragedy and should pose as a stark warning about the dangers of any drugs.

"LSD, if that's what it was, is an insidious drug. It's got a smiley face on it and looks harmless, but it kills," Supt Bingham said.

Paul Dillon from Drug and Alcohol Research and Training Australia warned that LSD, the once fashionable drug of the 1960s, was having a resurgence in popularity because it is cheap, its effects last much longer than ecstasy and it is not detectable by sniffer dogs: "Some people think LSD went out with the hippie era and isn't around any more, which couldn't be further from the truth."

Nick's death follows that of Brazilian student Roberto Laudisio Curti, who took LSD on the night he was tasered and died during a police chase through Sydney in March.

Detectives fear there could be a toxic batch of the drug circulating, after numerous other incidents were reported where people had suffered serious side effects. Police are awaiting toxicology results, but said evidence found in the boy's bedroom suggested it was likely LSD had been consumed.

Friends of Nick said he was a "smart and popular" boy who had formed a skateboarding club in the Gosford area where teenagers could hang out and share their love of the sport.

On Facebook they lamented a life cut so tragically short.

"Can't believe someone so smart, young and talented could be taken away," Nathan James wrote.

At Gosford High, where Nick was a Year 9 student, counselling was offered to his classmates who were struggling to deal with the senseless death. A private funeral service for Nick will be held next week.

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GOD!!! The Nbome's are fucking killing LSD as we speak. The worlds illegal drug market is getting flooded with these shitty research chemicals that are killing our kids, if we would just accept that we as humans are going to continue to use substances, than this would go away.

Lately my friend has been telling everyone he knows of the dangers of "25-i" and related substances and how to watch out for them. He asks anyone else now to please do the same, its becoming obvious that these substances probably should be rid of as soon as possible, not by prohibition but by boycott. One way to know if you could possibly be taking a blotter containing a psychedelic phenethylamine is by the intense bitter flavor associated with them, especially 25x-Nbome substances over DOx substances.

Just saw this article about a tragic death of a young man in Australia:

(beginning of article

LIKE a carefree teenager, Nick Mitchell spent Saturday morning skateboarding and hanging out with his younger brother. Life was good for the Central Coast boy.

Ten hours later the academically gifted teen was dead after a nightmare chain of events sparked by taking an illegal and dangerous drug.

Nick, 15, died after he and a mate experimented with a substance police believe to be LSD.

The drug caused respiratory problems and heart complications for Nick, who could not be revived after his 11-year-old brother found him unconscious in his bedroom.

It had a different effect on his friend, also 15, who, in a psychotic state, ran naked into traffic on a busy road and was hit by a car, leaving him with serious injuries. He is in hospital.

Nick's parents Matthew and Sharon were yesterday struggling with the shock of their son's tragic death and how the popular teen came to be in possession of such a deadly substance.

The two mates had been hanging out together in Nick's granny flat-style bedroom, at the rear of the family's waterfront home in Tascott.

It was during the heatwave on Saturday, and neighbours said they saw the pair wander between the flat and a backyard pool, looking happy and giving no hint of the tragedy which was about to unfold.

About 8.30pm Mrs Mitchell received a frantic call at work from her youngest son to say Nick was not breathing. He'd found his brother slumped on the floor of the bedroom, which police later discovered had been "smashed up".

A neighbour raced over to help and performed CPR on the dying boy, while he waited for paramedics.

In a cruel twist, paramedics racing to the Mitchells' home came across an accident just around the corner where Nick's friend had been hit by a car.

A second ambulance got to Nick and rushed him to Gosford Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Head of the NSW Police drug squad Detective Superintendent Nick Bingham said the teenager's death was an absolute tragedy and should pose as a stark warning about the dangers of any drugs.

"LSD, if that's what it was, is an insidious drug. It's got a smiley face on it and looks harmless, but it kills," Supt Bingham said.

Paul Dillon from Drug and Alcohol Research and Training Australia warned that LSD, the once fashionable drug of the 1960s, was having a resurgence in popularity because it is cheap, its effects last much longer than ecstasy and it is not detectable by sniffer dogs: "Some people think LSD went out with the hippie era and isn't around any more, which couldn't be further from the truth."

Nick's death follows that of Brazilian student Roberto Laudisio Curti, who took LSD on the night he was tasered and died during a police chase through Sydney in March.

Detectives fear there could be a toxic batch of the drug circulating, after numerous other incidents were reported where people had suffered serious side effects. Police are awaiting toxicology results, but said evidence found in the boy's bedroom suggested it was likely LSD had been consumed.

Friends of Nick said he was a "smart and popular" boy who had formed a skateboarding club in the Gosford area where teenagers could hang out and share their love of the sport.

On Facebook they lamented a life cut so tragically short.

"Can't believe someone so smart, young and talented could be taken away," Nathan James wrote.

At Gosford High, where Nick was a Year 9 student, counselling was offered to his classmates who were struggling to deal with the senseless death. A private funeral service for Nick will be held next week.

(end of article)

The article is on the dailytelegraph.au website for those interested.

This is very sad news, but I'm shocked at how the death was blamed on LSD considering no one has ever died from an LSD overdose. It's unfortunate that naive and uninformed people spread the word that LSD is deadly, in this case "an insidious drug . . . it kills". I'm inclined to think it was an NBOMe or Dox chemical.

Im inclined to agree with your assumptions, but understand, these are assumptions and until a toxicology report is released, and someone stays on top of this story, only then will LSD's good name be cleared of any wrong doing.

With the age of the internet and news easily shared, more and more claims of LSD being the assailant in cases like this are emerging. This also comes at a time when drugs equally as potent, like the NBOMe series of drugs are all over the globe. At what concentration? That is anyone's guess.

The important talking point that people reading this should take to heart is that while these drugs are passed off as LSD, they can not be carelessly consumed like LSD. Having taken 10 hits of LSD at once in my younger days, 10 hits of a blotter of one of the NBOMe series of phenethylamines would have killed me many times over.

Please understand the above and remember this if you decide to take LSD from an unknown source.

The Daily Telegraph (Sydney) journalists Clementine Cuneo and Richard Noone put together an article, released on the 6th of December 2012, entitled, “Teenager Nick Mitchell’s LSD overdose – death, delusions and despair”.

Although the story focuses on the substance LSD as a source of “Death, delusions and despair” it does note that, “Police are awaiting toxicology results, but said evidence found in the boy’s bedroom suggested it was likely LSD had been consumed.”

The story follows a piece of rhetoric that came up recently in an article in Fairfax’s Sydney Morning Herald, “Many young people have started using hallucinogens because they are becoming more accessible and are relatively cheap, with LSD costing about $20 a tab, says (Paul) Dillon, the director of Drug and Alcohol Research and Training Australia.”

The cornerstone of this rhetoric is that the apparently out-of-fashion substance LSD is making a dangerous return. However, the Victorian Department of Health’s Patterns of Drug Use & related harm in Victoria reports over the past 15 years have shown no significant rise in the use of what the government refers to as ‘hallucinogens’, the category which includes LSD. Usage sits around the 1% of respondents mark. Director of Drug and Alcohol Research and Training Australia Paul Dillon is often quoted in these articles and seems to be suggesting that there has been a rise in the use of LSD. However, over at NineMSN the story is reported without all the irresponsible speculation. “Mr Dillon said until the results of the toxicology are released, he will not speculate the cause of the teenager’s death. “Until we receive all the information, the best possible message we can get across is to provide the right information to the public”"

The Death, Delusions, Despair version of the story has been syndicated across various other News Limited (Rupert Murdoch owned) papers, including South Australia’s Adelaide Now and Melbourne’s Herald Sun.

I believe that such stories should not be allowed to go published without comment and complaint. Journalists needs to be held to the highest of standards, and we should expect responsible reporting from them, even when their industry is in a down-turn, papers are downsizing and profits are leaking from everywhere. These are not excuses for lazy, irresponsible and blatantly shit-house journalism. Here’s my complaint/comment:

I would like to make a complaint about the article entitled, “Teenager Nick Mitchell’s LSD overdose – death, delusions and despair”

Journalists Clementine Cuneo and Richard Noone have barely checked facts and jumped to conclusions that are inconsistent with known effects of the drugLSD. The headline itself claims that the teenager overdosed on LSD, but early on in the story it is noted that police believed he had taken LSD. Using phrases like, “such a deadly substance” when LSD is known to be a safer substance than Australia’s popular legal drugs alcohol and nicotine is irresponsible reporting. The story focuses on LSD being the deadly factor in this boy’s death, although the toxicology report is not yet in.

I will be interested to see what the toxicology report says, and speculate the substance was more likely the research chemical 25I-NBOMe, which some nefarious types sometimes sell as LSD.

It seems a hark back to ancient times to use the death of this boy to proliferate an obsolete and ill-thought-through ‘anti-drugs’ agenda.

I would like to see the article corrected and the irresponsible and scientifically unfounded speculation about what killed Nick Mitchell removed.
​

You should head across and send them a comment too.

Be careful if you decide to use a psychedelic substance like LSD. There is the potential for things to go wrong if your set and setting are not receptive to the experience. Know your body, know your mind and know your substance. Head to Erowid.org for more information on LSD.

Ahhh, 'ol Rupert Murdoch eh? I shoulda known...piece o crap right wing Bush lover, Fox News worthy only to his sicko friends, the word douchebag comes to mind, I love to hear the 'real' story about this tragic death.

Sad personal detail, my own Mother, who watches Fox news everyday, posted this to me, asking if she could have lost me all those years ago to this dangerous drug? I had to break it to her that, No! She didn't, and quit watching Fox News Mom!!!

A horrible piece of journalism. Besides the misleading, sensationalist headline and the uninformed story itself, the more important story went untold. As mentioned by other posters here, it seems unlikely that the ingested substance was LSD. On the other hand, it seems likely (although the article doesn't mention why the authorities are claiming the substance could be LSD) that the boys thought the substance they were ingesting was LSD.

The story should explain 1) why there is speculation that the substance was LSD; and 2) that there may be a deadly substance on the market falsely advertised by dealers as LSD.

For a long time now people have accepted that the term "ecstacy" could refer to anything sold as such in a pill, knowing dozens of chemicals besides the wanted "mdma" could be in them. I think with this new trend of other rcs being sold as lsd (not that it hasn't been happening since the 70s), people should start thinking of "acid" the same way (unfortunately). We can no longer assume that just because it fits on a blotter, it must be lsd. This is just my personal theory/opinion.